So often over the life of this blog, I’ve written about beautiful cookbooks. These posts are fun for me to write because I love any excuse to sit awhile with a new cookery volume and explore what it has to offer. Many of you take the time to write me an email or leave a comment, to tell me how useful you find these cookbook pieces, because they give you a chance to peek inside a book in a way that’s different from the experience on Amazon.
Today’s cookbook feature is a particularly unique joy, because this time, I’m sharing my own book
To my mind, the book is a tangible embodiment of this website. It brings together the most popular recipes from the archives as well as a number of new recipes you’ve never seen before. All the previously-published recipes were retested and rewritten before being included in the manuscript to ensure that they were the best versions of themselves. Many were also scaled down to yield just three or four pints, to keep with the small batch theme.
It includes detailed canning instructions (with helpful instructional pictures!), tips on how to determine whether your jam has reached its set point, a guide for adjusting processing time for altitude and all the best safety practices.
The recipes are sorted by genre, so that all the pickles are in one chapter, jellies in another and so on. Within each section, the recipes are arranged by season, so that each spring, you can start at the beginning of the jam chapter and then work your way through to the end.
The book is also full of really gorgeous images. Truly, my jars have never looked better. The photography was done by Steve Legato, at his Philadelphia studio, and it was such a pleasure to watch him work. Also, I made all the canned goods pictured, so you can trust that your finished products should look pretty darn close to what you see.
Another way I tried to keep the book tied closely to this site is that it’s not just about canning. Towards the back of the book, you’ll find sections devoted to nut butters, granolas, bread and scone mixes in jars and even flavored salts. There’s also information about how to best freeze different fruits and vegetables, and some details on pressure canning low acid foods.
Finally, the reason I think so many of you will like the book is that it’s me. It’s my voice, the same one you read here day after day. I’m always working to write about food preservation in a way that conveys the fact that it’s a joy, not a chore. That feeling ribbons throughout the book. I love joining so many of you in your kitchens through this blog and I hope I’ll get to do the same through the book.
Thanks to my kind publicist at Running Press, I have three copies of the Food in Jars
- To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post and share your favorite kind of food in jars. Jam? Jelly? Pickles? Chutney? Canned peaches? Granola? Iced coffee? There is no wrong answer.
- Comments will close at 11:59 pm eastern time on Sunday, May 27, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) and will be posted to the blog on Monday, May 28, 2012.
- Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian readers.
- One entry/comment per person, please.
If you can’t bear to wait and see if you win the giveaway, you can always order a copy by clicking here: Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round
I love your blog and from the glimpse you’ve given us I will most likely be buying your book if I don’t win it. :^)
Ooops – left off a sentence…. My favorite thing to come out of a jar is garlic dill pickles. Although strawberry jam is a close second!
I used to can everything with my mother – me being the oldest of 6 kids! To this day, even though I’m single, I still can my own tomatoes & small batches of jam, relish & pickles because they just taste so much better. I think jam & relish are my favorites but I’ve never done either in some of the ways I’ve found on THIS site! And I’ll be buying your book if I don’t win one!!! yessireeee!
i have two favorites for mason jars: jams and iced tea. i make blackberry jam and grape jelly from my garden and starwberry jam from a local pick your own place. does applesauce count as a jam?! and whenever i’m home i have a glass of iced tea on the counter to sip from (i count it towards my daily water quota!).
Homemade yogurt (fermented in jars of course) layered with jam and granola.
I can’t wait to get a copy of the book!
My favorite has to be the pomegranate jam my friend made- I was dubious but it was sooooo delicious!
I want one !!! Iwant one !!! love me some pickles
looks great cant wait to get a copy !
For me it’s a tie: regular old pickles or kimchi!
The book looks terrific! 🙂
Marmalade! Oh, and sweet pickle relish!
My favorite canned food would be fruit jellies and jams. I recently retired and I am thoroughly enjoying being in the kitchen after all my working years! I love your blog and it saved a batch of peach jam that didn’t ‘set up’ right! I love the look of your cookbook!
Most things taste better in jars.
My favorite jarred thing for me is raspberry jam, and for the kids is applesauce (we go through quarts and quarts and quarts!!!).
Your cookbook looks wonderful. Can’t wait to read it. Thanks so much for the chance to win a copy.
My favorite is marinara sauce. It takes a lot of time to prep in August but I absolutely love being able to go to the pantry on a hectic weekday night in February and pull out a quart for a 5-minute dinner that is still fresh and local. Congrats on the beautiful book!
My favorite food in jars to look at after they are made and to eat all year long in oh so many ways are tomatoes. They look great in canning jars…….much better then tin can! MK
I love pickled beets, spiced apple rings, pickles, pretty much anything. Food in Jars has helped bring my canning to a whole new level-one way or another I plan to get a copy of this awesome cookbook! Thank you!
Oh, this cookbook would be so wonderful! My fav food in jars has to be my grandmothers strawberry jam, the best, thickest, chunkiest jam ever, so good on homemade bread!
I think my favorite is jam. I already have your cook book (great read BTW) but if I win, I’ll pass it along.
Jams and jellies, for sure. Or maybe pickles. I love pickles.
I’d have to say that hot giardiniera is my favorite food in jars. I’d love to learn to make it. It’s never hot enough for me. Thanks for the giveaway.
Pickled Okra. Can’t wait for my okra in the garden to hurry up so I can start canning!
The best thing to ever come out of a jar in my house is plain ole concord grape jam. I thought I didn’t like grape jam/jelly until I made it myself. That’s something I find to be true every time I redo an old classic!
Fruit butters and syrups!
I like everything in jars. Right now I’ve been loving pickles and I can’t wait until my pickling cucumbers start growing on my patio to make some!
Pickles! or boozy fruit! or yogurt…
Jam!!
The cookbook looks gorgeous… it is on my wish list! My favourite food in jars? Pickles, with plenty of dill.
I love pickled anything.
I would have to say my favorite is preserved fruit! yummy in my tummy!
My favorite is a tie between jam and marinara. My homemade marinara sauce is what first got me into canning, but blueberry jam is amazing.
Peaches! Peaches! Peaches! The artwork/design of your book looks beautiful.
From what I’ve learned to make – marmalade. From what I’m hoping to learn – pickled green beans… and congrats.
Your book looks SO beautiful!
and Pickles are BY FAR my favorite, though my grandma’s strawberry jam is also pretty darn special.
thanks! L.
My favorite? So many recipes, so many great flavors. I have to say though, that my favorite by far is the Pear Vanilla Jam. Who knew we liked pears so much! Thanks so much for making my foray into the world of canning and yogurt making and almond butter making such fun!!! (and tasty and productive and healthy and….. 🙂
Peace,
JoAnn R
Your book looks beautiful! I love home-canned peaches. Nothing in the store can compare to their deliciousness! My husband would pick raspberry jam.
syrups! (and pickled garlic)
Congrats on the cookbook! (it looks great)
Tough call: either jam or my grandma’s dilled carrots. Congrats on publishing a book! 🙂
I have your book already and LOVE it. If I win a second copy I’m going to give it to my sister becuase I know she will love it too.
I found your blog by searching for a recipe for Sour Cherry Jam. I have been reading ever since. My favorite food in jars is a line-up:
1. Sour Cherry Jam
2. Peaches
3. Pickles
There are more, of course, but those are probably the top three. Thanks for all of the wonderful recipes and instructions.
Looking forward to your visit to PDX!
Chutney… any chutney, really. It’s one condiment that the big commercial producers haven’t taken over; barring a few over-priced jars of Major Grey’s, you don’t find much of it in your local supermarket. Plum cardamom chutney is one of my favourites!
Favorite food in a jar – berry jam. I can still taste the freezer jam my grandmother always laid by, and there hasn’t been any of that in the world since the 90’s.
Definitely strawberry jam, I use mine almost every morning, with pickled okra a close second, partly because, if you pack it carefully, it can look so pretty in the jar
I just started canning and have swiftly made 5 batches of your wonderfully delicious strawberry vanilla jam. My house is full of far too many mason jars to just fill with strawberries this season. Bring on the FIJ book.. my jars need fantastic-ness in their tummies. 🙂
Congrats on your book- It’s beautiful.
I love homemade syrups (just made a rhubarb syrup yesterday!) and jams. I also adore iced coffee in jars… but I’ve really got to get better jars that don’t leak!
I am going to have to say your recipe for pickled onions is by far the one food in jars that I crave! And when the jars run out, I cry. Then run to the farmer’s market to buy more onions 🙂
My favorite food in jars is a tie between pickles and jam. I make a ridiculous amount of each almost every year. One thing I think I could get addicted to really easily is syrups, which I’m adding to my repertoire this year, thanks to the recipes and recommendations on this blog!
My favorite food in jars is probably jam…it’s so easy to make and tastes so good!
i can’t decide between jam or chutney. i love them both. but that blueberry butter recipe you featured from your book looked fantastic, too, so, perhaps the butters might be my favorite as well. drinking from jars–mason jars, bells jars–has always been de riguer in my family, too.
Raspberry freezer jam. A little reminder of summer.
The book looks amazing! And my fave food in jars would have to be pickles. But jam is close.
Homemade Oregon strawberry freezer jam …. not exactly in a jar as my mom used the white plastic containers. Takes me back to summers that seemed to last forever.
I love pretty much all jams, but the canned thing that I love most of all is pickled peppers. Yum!
Difficult to pick one favorite. If I must it would be apricot butter.
Love homemade pickles with garlic!
So hard to pick a favorite but here goes. The first time I tried homemade pickled asparagus it was such an unexpected treat – I’ll have to go with that. I was pregnant and it became an instant addiction. I would call up the lady who canned it and ask for a dozen jars at a time! When I started canning on my own it was at the top of my list of things to learn.
Any tomato-based products, especially tomato butter!
My favorite food in jars thus far is salsa. I made my first foray into canning last season with three versions of salsa and really enjoyed getting to eat them through the winter. I found your site through the canning subreddit on reddit, and have been really enjoying it. Thanks!
This is only my second year of canning, thanks to this site. So, since I haven’t branched out yet, I’d say berry and peach jams. My family loves it!
Butters of all kinds are my favourites.
I’m just getting into canning, but I do remember my mom’s peaches and ketchup. It was the best!
My favorite jams are being edged out by pickles, relishes, and lemon and lime curds. So many possibilities.
Homemade jelly’s the bomb – any flavor, but especially plum. Congratulations on your beautiful book!
Love blueberry jam! I made freezer jam last year, and now that I’m not terrified of canning anymore (in large part due to your blog!) I’m excited to preserve some this year.
preserved lemons and boozy jams
Pickles are definitely my favorite food-in-a-jar! 🙂
Your cookbook is beautiful, by the way!
Homemade spiced apple butter !
We are still enjoying canned peaches from last summer. Yuummmm!
It’s a toss up…either raspberry jam, or a good summer cocktail.
Just wanted to let you know that we made your strawberry vanilla jam 2 weeks ago and how delicious it is! Just a subtle hint of vanilla. Last night we took 3 cups of homemade yogurt and mixed in a 1/2 pint jar of the jam and then made frozen yogurt in the ice cream maker – it was super good and super fast!
Jam, jam and more jam!
Can’t wait to make my grandma’s 14 day pickles!
Mmmm…definitely jam! Strawberry, blackberry, peach…I love them all!
Mustard!
Black forest jam.
Strawberry preserves or bread and butter pickles are my favorites.
My favorites are whatever friends, family request again and again. Nephew…peach butter. Mom….meyer lemon marmalade. Best friend…peach salsa. Me…anything chutney : )
I love a good strawberry jam AND pickles. LOVE LOVE LOVE pickles!!!!
My very vocal hints that I wanted your cookbook & a pressure canner for Mother Day were completely ignored so I’m throwing my hat in the ring for this give away. If I’m not successful my husband will be getting your book and a pressure canner for Fathers Day!
My favorite kind of food to PUT IN jars is jam, but my favorite kind of food to EAT from jars is pickles and ferments!
I started canning a little over a year ago with some girl friends, and we have consulted your blog regularly. We have even made some of your posted recipes. At our latest session, we were all drooling over your book. Often, you look through a book and want to try a few of the recipes. But, your book is full of recipes that all of us want to try. And, the small batch approach makes it easily doable. Can’t wait to try them out!
I would have to say peach jam!!! But I may change my mind after trying a few new recipes from your book. 🙂
I like to gift jams. Of all home-made stuff, kimchi is prob my favorite “jar food”…
Congrats on the book!
For me, pure bliss is an absolutely perfect apricot jam (not too sweet!) spooned straight from the jar.
Chutneys are my favorite, but my eye was caught by the Slow-Cooker Blueberry Butter page. Definitely need to try that!
Salsa!
I am discovering the joys of pickling right now!
I have been making granola from a recipe on this site, and it is super-delicious. Definitely a household favorite. I can’t wait to try out some of the slow cooker fruit butter recipes you have too. Slow cooker + canning fruity goodness = love!
This year I am going to make chutney, but I think my current fave is caramelized pear jam with vanilla bean. SO good with brie, and I think it came from you?
All manner of canned fruits and veggies are wonderful ….and so much better than the store bought stuff! I would luv a copy of the cookbook!
I love your tomato jam! It’s the best ever – goes great with peanut butter, cream cheese, or goat cheese. This discovery transformed my life.
My favorite is my mum’s apple sauce made from the apples that grow on her ancient wolf river apple tree. Still working to match her. So excited for the giveaway! *fingers crossed
I just read your writeup on pickled spring onions which sound really good! My favorite FIJs jams first but pickled vegetable comes a close second, I don’t know, not second, I think they are both tied for first.
Putting things in jars makes me think of being a squirrel, hiding my nuts to eat at a future winter’s meal. I suppose it would have to be jam, rhubarb vanilla in particular, that I would choose. for me spreading jam on homemade toasted bread and sharing a pot of strong tea, with a dear friend, is the best way to have a conversation!
The boozy peaches look wonderful! I am in the process of doing preserved lemons now.
Fermented dill carrots – Yum!
Pickles!
I love pumpkin butter the most. But I certainly wouldn’t refuse pickles.
I feel like a squirrel, burying her nuts for the long winter, when I can something. It mi8ght end up on my table, and it might be given to a friend for a gift of nourishment. I suppose my fave would be jam. Jam congers up the image of spreading it on toasted homemade bread, and having a pot of really good tea to share with a friend.
I’m going to be a traditionalist and say that my favorite thing in jars is still jam! I do store most of my pantry items in jars though. I love the way they look.
Berry jam is probably my favorite. I made some blackberry-nectarine freezer jam last year that was just fantastic, if I do say so myself!
Tomato sauce!
Hopefully, my tomato plants will yield more this year than during last year’s drought and temps over 100 degrees!!
I love strawberry/blueberry jelly – all year round thanks to canning my own!